This needs their i-phone app to tell you where Polaris should appear in the reticle when aligned for particular date/time. You don't have to rotate the RA axis to use it which is nice. On the other hand, the pier would need to be level on the East West direction to not induce some error. I thought about it, but my locations have some slope to them and between the scope and the bracket for the mount, it is rather pricey.

I think it looks great but its too rich for me right now between it and the required adapter.Also, its apparently only as accurate as the initial drift align you perform to calibrate the scope. Not a big deal, just make sure you've got a good alignment when you first align the reticle.

This needs their i-phone app to tell you where Polaris should appear in the reticle when aligned for particular date/time. You don't have to rotate the RA axis to use it which is nice. On the other hand, the pier would need to be level on the East West direction to not induce some error. I thought about it, but my locations have some slope to them and between the scope and the bracket for the mount, it is rather pricey.

Dave

That's a very good point. I didn't think about that. the mount needs to be perfectly level in the E-W direction otherwise the first drift alignment is completely useless.
My Tak scope has a bubble level. That seems to be a better system as I can polar align without the need for the mount to be level.

It's really quite funny to hear a gripe about an app that costs $1.99 in the same context of an Astro Physics mount. It's kind of like getting upset that an oil change on a Ferrari generally costs $2k at a dealer. You bought it, you got it and now you have to pay for it.

No offense to the budget minded here on CN; it's just that you can't really expect AP, Tak, TV, or any hand made, high QC hardware to be cheap.

My last company had a Cessna Citation Bravo Jet and I remember my boss coveting a Gulfstream V. We couldn't afford it but that jet kicks *BLEEP* nonetheless.

It's really quite funny to hear a gripe about an app that costs $1.99 in the same context of an Astro Physics mount. It's kind of like getting upset that an oil change on a Ferrari generally costs $2k at a dealer. You bought it, you got it and now you have to pay for it.

No offense to the budget minded here on CN; it's just that you can't really expect AP, Tak, TV, or any hand made, high QC hardware to be cheap.

My last company had a Cessna Citation Bravo Jet and I remember my boss coveting a Gulfstream V. We couldn't afford it but that jet kicks *BLEEP* nonetheless.

I thought that the complaint was about the fact that no android app is available.
However I am very interested in first reports about the polar scope. Theoretically it should work great but I wonder if it will indeed be as good as the tak one. Btw If I remember well I had to buy tak align for my Tak mount.

The polar finder takes the place of the cable run. I'm not giving up my cable run on the Mach 1 given my field experience with polar alignment scopes. The alignment leaves just as much precision polar alignment work to do as if I had just eyeballed north when I set the mount down.

At least AP has the app to mercifully reduce the "Where's Polaris supposed to be?" Conundrum. But given how close the reference (Polaris) is to the axis, there is a lot of intrinsic error which can't be reduced without a far off-axis reference to get the clocking more accurate.

Anyway, while performing the trials which ultimately convinced me cable pass-thrus are the best use of that space, I made an alignment target. Enjoy.

-Rich

Attached Files

Greg, i think you missunderstood what i said/meant. I dont have any issue at all paying for a $1.99 app, its the fact its not available for Android, i dont want to
spend another $100 or more on a used iPad just to use it.

I'm just curious, I just received a Pasill4 and haven't had a chance to use it yet. Is this new angle polar scope going to replace the need to drift align? Will it be that accurate? Otherwise, isn't the polar scope only used for a for 30 seconds or so to quick align anyway?

I have not used the pasill4 yet but it seems pretty inaccurate and wobbly compared to the tak. The new ra polar scope claims to be a lot more accurate. It will be only as accurate as the initial calibration and subsequent leveling of the mount in the e-w direction. I think it would be prefect if it was rotatable and had a built in bubble level Andy

Hi Faron.I followed Howard's suggestion about fine tuning the Pasill4L and this past friday I had my first light with the mount. I did a 30 second polar alignment and it was precise enough to give me excellent goto's. Also the drift seemed to be minimal and very easy to guide out. So thumbs up for the Pasill4 after the fine tuning!